What a day we had on Thursday. I'm still recovering. We had the pleasure of working with the baddest drummer on the planet and one of the nicest guys in the world. And incredibly professional. His drum roadie put it best: "Dennis just lovesto play the drums." And that is true-he is about the music and his instrument. We got there about 11AM and had his drums set up. After the usual tones and everyone getting ready (and coffee and sandwich breaks) we hit about 2:30 and by 3:15 had Emerald Mile nailed. Once I get some audio from that session-I'll put a little bit on the podcast page so you all can get a little preview of the explosiveness and the groove from that tune now that Dennis has graced it. Ridiculous-but with taste, musicality, feel, power-just amazing. We hit Scrool next-got that done about 5:30 and then went and had dinner. We polished off all the tunes by about 9:30. We did about one or two takes on each-once everyone was cool with their parts.
We did Subtle Demons-the oldest tune on this record (originally bassoons for this were recorded in 2004)-and I knew it was going to be amazing. And it was. Dennis is one guy who is very comfortable being himself-no airs, no put-ons, great sense of humor, easy to work with. It never felt like his way or the highway-his first and foremost concern is the good of the music.  Boy-what fun. We recorded at Prairie Sun Recording-what a great sound they get there. Their website is
http://www.prairiesun.com/